Study on modeling and dynamic performance of a planar flexible parallel manipulator based on finite element method

The application of a high-speed parallel manipulator necessitates the adoption of a lightweight design to reduce dead weight. However, this increases the elastic deformation of certain components, affecting the dynamic performance of the system. This study examined a 2-DOF planar flexible parallel manipulator. A dynamic model of the parallel manipulator composed of fully flexible links was established using a floating reference coordinate system and a combination of the finite element and augmented Lagrange multiplier methods. A dynamic analysis of the simplified model under three driving torque modes showed that the axial deformation was less than the transverse deformation by three orders of magnitude. Further, the kinematic and dynamic performance of the redundant drive was significantly better than that of the non-redundant drive, and the vibration was well suppressed in the redundant drive mode. In addition, the comprehensive performance of driving Mode 2 was better than that of the other two modes. Finally, the validity of the dynamic model was verified by modeling via Adams. The modular modeling method is conducive to the extension to other models and programming. Furthermore, the dynamic model of the established fully flexible link system can aid in optimizing the lightweight design and dynamic performance of the parallel manipulator.